Post Office to Cut Back on Saturday Deliveries

Katie Pavlich

2/6/2013 8:18:00 AM - Katie Pavlich

It's happening, the Postal Service will end Saturday mail delivery as early as August 2013. Packages however will continue to be delivered on the weekend. More from Fox News:

The U.S. Postal Service plans to announce Wednesday that it will end Saturday mail delivery, in one of the most significant steps taken to date to cut costs at the struggling agency.

A source familiar with the decision confirmed the plan to Fox News.

Under the proposal, the Postal Service will continue to deliver packages six days a week. The plan, which is aimed at saving about $2 billion, would start to take effect in August.

The move accentuates one of the agency's strong points -- package delivery has increased by 14 percent since 2010, officials say, while the delivery of letters and other mail has declined with the increasing use of email and other Internet use.

Under the new plan, mail would still be delivered to post office boxes on Saturdays. Post offices now open on Saturdays would remain open on Saturdays.

And yes, it takes an Act of Congress apparently for the agency to do anything significant in terms of cost cutting:

It was not immediately clear how the service could eliminate Saturday mail without congressional approval.

As a reminder, the Post Office lost a record $16 billion last year and $9 billion in 2011.